Investing.com - Solid fourth-quarter earnings sent U.S. stocks rising on Thursday and offset weak retail sales and jobless claims reports.
At the close of U.S. trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.40%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.58%, while the Nasdaq Composite index rose 0.94%.
Robust fourth-quarter earnings from tire producer Goodyear Tire & Rubber and broadcaster CBS sent stocks gaining on Thursday, giving investors room to focus on corporate fundamentals and less on economic recovery.
Also on Thursday, shares rose on reports Comcast Corp. agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. for USD45.2 billion in stock.
Weak data watered down gains only slightly.
The Commerce Department reported earlier that U.S. retail sales fell 0.4% in January, confounding expectations for a 0.3% increase. December’s figure was revised down to a decline of 0.1% from a previously reported 0.2% increase.
Core retail sales came in flat in January compared to expectations for a 0.1% rise.
Elsewhere, the Department of Labor reported that the number of individuals who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose by 8,000 to 339,000 from the previous week’s total of 331,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 1,000.
Leading Dow Jones Industrial Average performers included AT&T, up 1.2768%, UnitedHealth, up 1.39%, and Boeing, up 1.03%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average's worst performers included Cisco, down 2.91%, 3M, down 0.21%, and American Express, down 0.14%.
European indices, meanwhile, finished largely higher.
After the close of European trade, the EURO STOXX 50 rose 0.12%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.17%, while Germany's DAX 30 rose 0.60%. Meanwhile, in the U.K. the FTSE 100 fell 0.23%.